Analyzing Technical Risks and Project Management in the S-80 Submarine

This case study examines the challenges faced by major defense projects, focusing on the technical risks encountered during the development of Spain's S-80 class submarine. It highlights problems such as scope creep, political risks, and uncertain technical challenges, which can impact engineers' confidence and stakeholder involvement, potentially leading to financial losses and government embarrassment. The study discusses the reasons defense contractors add modifications and new features to current programs, using the S-80 submarine as an example, where modifications aimed at improving efficiency and power resulted in delays and increased weight. The paper concludes by offering advice for managing defense projects more effectively through better planning, budget control, and training, emphasizing the importance of addressing fundamental issues like buoyancy and air-independent propulsion before adding new features. Desklib provides students access to similar case studies and solved assignments.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Spain’s S-80 class submarine
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1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Problems faced by major defense projects due to technical risks.
Technical risks leads to poor project management and a number of lessons can be learnt
from there. The problems with major defense projects that are caused due to technical risks are
scope creep, political risks and uncertain technical challenges (Feickert, 2013). Technical risks
might have direct impact on engineer’s confidence. The team creating the submarine might also
face problem while involving the stakeholders. Poor project management will not only lead to
loss of huge amount of money however, it can also cost the government who is authorizing the
project (Pedatzur & Navy, 2016). Technical risks might lead to a great deal of embarrassment for
the government when those errors come to light.
2. The reasons why defense contractors add new modifications and features to current programs.
In this particular case study the defense contractors wanted to add new modifications and
features to S-80 submarines to make it 20% lighter than the other ships and deliver 50% more
power. As a result of the list of upgrades, the delivery date of Isaac Peral was delayed (Feickert,
2013). Therefore, from the above study, it can be concluded that defense contractors demand for
modifications to current program to make it more efficient and better from the current program.
They modify projects according to requirements. However, sometimes these modifications might
result in delay of delivery of project and involve few technical risks (Lorell, Leonard & Doll,
2015). In this particular case study, Isaac Peral weighted 75- 100 tons more for adding new
gadgetry to it. The Spanish Navy would face challenge while bringing the submarine to surface
after submerging (Pedatzur & Navy, 2016). The defense contractors might decide according to
their budget and design mechanisms the new features that needs to be added to the current
project.

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT
3. Advice that would be given for managing the defense projects:
The defense projects can be managed better by proper planning. The features,
modifications, new constructions that would be added to quartet S-80 submarines should be
specified before-hand. The budget for the project should be set accordingly before initiating the
project. This will help to eliminate the budget issues that are faced by S-80 submarines (Lorell,
Leonard & Doll, 2015). The engineers should be given training on buoyancy control such that
they can correct the errors with minimum cost.
In this case study, the main problem is regarding budget and buoyancy. The budget
problem can be rectified by proper structuring of the project and buoyancy problem can be
solved by properly training the Spaniards. Another problem detected in the submarines are
regarding air-independent propulsion (AIP). The AIP is underperforming (Walker, 2015).
Therefore, if the basic parts of the submarines are rectified, more features can be added with less
efforts and errors. The cost to be spent for adding new constructions would also reduce (Lorell,
Leonard & Doll, 2015). However, the Spanish Government should invest minimum cost that
would be required to change the features of the submarines.

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Reference List:
Feickert, A. (2013, June). The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program: Background
and Issues for Congress. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC
CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE.
Lorell, M. A., Leonard, R. S., & Doll, A. (2015). Extreme cost growth: Themes from six US Air
Force major defense acquisition programs (No. RR-630-AF). RAND PROJECT AIR
FORCE SANTA MONICA CA.
Pedatzur, O., & Navy, I. (2016). Weight design margins in naval ship design: A rational
approach. Naval Engineers Journal, 128(2), 57-64.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.